While Anandtech has not done a review on that model, the reviews that have been done said the power supply was not that noisy. I don't know where you are getting this failure documentation, but that model does come with a three year warranty so your comments are suspect.Reply

I'm not surprised the 1U PSU is failing a lot. The only way a 40mm fan can generate enough air flow to keep a large PSU cool is to run louder than a jet turbine. This is only acceptable inside a server room where humans rarely enter. For something sitting on your desk the fan needs to be throttled to the point where under any sort of sustained load the PSU is probably cooking itself.

I don't see a major problem with the lack of an optical drive any more. Aside from installing old software they're rarely needed anymore; just get a USB model for the rare occasions you need it. Also, SFF slot drives tend to be hard to find an expensive anyway. Unless you need one regularly paying that much extra to keep it in the case doesn't seem to be a good idea.Reply

With support for full size ATX power supplies and 2 slot full length cards, it's a small gamer box. If you're putting a bug GPU inside, it's going to be too loud to put next to the TV. If you don't, it's way bulkier than necessary.Reply

I obviously can't speak for this particular case, but in general I'd say the noise being a problem is debatable. I have Elite 120s with full size SeaSonic PSUs and Radeon 7850s. They aren't even audible with the TV on, even at low volumes. Running FurMark and Prime95 full tilt would obviously change that, but even the basic Steam gaming the machines do isn't enough to make them noisy enough to notice. YMMV and there's obviously a ton of variables, but I think this size case with a moderate build and a quiet card (e.g. GTX 750) is a reasonable TV companion.Reply

I agree that's there is personal preference involved, but that would definitely be too much noise for me to use as an HTPC. My HTPC is completely silent, as in zero dB. I'm using a passively cooled motherboard (NVidia Jetson), an external DC power supply, and an SSD.

On the topic of whether HTPCs need an optical drive, it's my feeling that they generally don't. Mine has an external USB Bluray drive, but it's rarely plugged in. Granted, the same TV has a Playstation 3 hooked to it, so that's where the discs normally go.Reply

> I don't see a major problem with the lack of an optical drive any more.

For HTPCs having an optical drive is almost a must, otherwise you'll always have an armada of standalone players around.

Also if you want to play any of the even just slightly older games you will need to a real drive thanks to copy protection schemes, well, that or you'll apply some Chinese/Russion No-CD crack that will with 95% probability infect your system with some sort of nasty malware. I might sound outdated but I still like to play NBA 2K13 for example...Reply

Those seem like quite different cases though in almost every aspect. The price gap is obvious, and would be enough for a very nice PSU + case for the Thermaltake. The Hadron is tiny in comparison (the Core is 44% larger), which can either be a pro or con depending on what your priorities are. The design of the Hadron makes it ideally suited to vertical orientation, where it is too tall to be a good HTPC candidate for most.

Really, the Core seems like Thermaltake's alternative to something like the Cooler Master Elite 130 which shares the exact same MSRP and is very close dimension/volume wise. I like the aesthetics of the Core better, so it will be interesting to see if/when it starts hitting sale prices of $40 or less. The Cooler Master has been my go-to case for cheap HTPC builds, and I still think it's an awesome case for the seemingly-perpetually-on-sale price in the $35 range if you aren't trying to build an overclocking monster.Reply